Wake Up
by bed of nails and sandpaper
Summary: Sci-fi AU: Yamato and Taichi were born in the same village and endured academy training together. After graduation Yamato left Earth to explore the universe and Taichi left to become an Earthian military Captain. When Yamato goes missing Taichi and his crew set out to find him and stumble upon a plan that may lead to humanity's end. Taito and other side pairings
1. Chapter 1

**Wake Up**

* * *

Yamato savoured every drop of sweet, cool juice when he took his first bite of the rosy apple. It was the first taste of fresh fruit that he'd had in months. The markets on Hallard had been extravagant beyond belief and rich in cultures that he'd never met before. He'd sampled sweet Avarian spices, indulged himself in buying a Jarbar hide blanket for his cot and bartered his last trade of meat for a song from a Catarish gypsy. But, of all pleasures, the food of earth was what he was most weak to. It had been so long since he'd had a true taste of his native culture and something so simple as an apple offered a world of comfort for him. He ran his tongue along his wrist and fingers where the sugary fruit's nectar had escaped and sighed in bliss. It had cost him a week's worth of trade for a single basket, so he was certain to ensure that none of it would go to waste.

The nostalgic sweetness that washed over his tongue brought him back to a different time where more than a silent void lay beyond the walls of his small craft. He remembered trickling streams, grassy fields split by dusty paths and warm faces that seemed to be always smiling. What he'd seen on his once great home planet vastly differed from the way it was seen by the rest of the universe. What remained of Earth had been blemished by great expanses of barren desert and deep, rocky craters that had once held water. As the temperature of its surface had risen the life that had existed on it had slowly boiled and died, unable to adapt quickly enough to survive. Instead humanity had divided into contained settlements; domed cities and villages that served to preserve what remained of its glory. Every small detail of the environment was controlled to maintain the surviving plant life and species.

Yamato's birthplace, Odaiba, was a small town in comparison to most of the others. The people there lived simple lives, preferring to support themselves through farming and independent business to avoid dependency on the larger industrial cities. Those cities had always struggled to maintain stable living environments and often suffered from overcrowding due to tourism. Those cities were the ones more likely to perish and leave homeless more humans than the planet could support. Most people born in Odaiba remained there until they were buried behind the houses they had lived in for nearly all of their lives. Yamato's desire to leave had shocked nearly everyone and tears had been shed upon his departure. But he knew that it would still be waiting for him when he decided to return.

With a smile, tinged with longing, he reached over to the trinkets that hung from the bottom of the ship's screen in front of him. There were no two pieces that came from the same place. The particular one that he reached for was the only one that wasn't tangled with the rest of them. It was an official medal to certify graduation from the Earthian Academy. With it he remained in Earth's care while on his travels and represented his planet as a tradesman. The simple act of wearing it kept him safe from thieves and prevented unlawful arrest on planets that didn't appreciate his presence. However, this particular medal didn't have his name engraved onto it. Instead it had the name of someone else; someone that owned a similar medal with _his_ name on it. Yamato stroked his thumb over the smooth silver face and engraving.

"I'll be home soon, okay?"

He whispered in a sorrowful tone and released the object to let it swing and rattle amongst the other hanging souvenirs. The sound was soothing and musical, reminding him of the wind chimes that hung on the tree outside of his childhood home.

His thoughts were jarred by a dull shock from the small computer attached to his arm. He'd grown tired of the beeping noise it usually emitted and so had set it to give off a small electric shock to alert him. However, the numbness of his arm that came as a result proved equally as irritating. Biting down into the apple he held it between his teeth while he checked the small screen on his forearm. He'd picked up a distress signal. It was odd considering he was so close to the edge of the galactic grid, so far away from any kind of civilisation or restock port. But, being the reckless type himself, he knew how easy it was to get into such situations and so thought that it wouldn't do much harm to investigate.

With a swipe of his finger across the screen, the information on his arm transferred to his ship's computer for him to look at on a much larger scale. The ship that had sent the signal had a licence, meaning that they likely weren't bandits or criminals, and there was only one registered passenger - the captain. Yamato finished his bite of the apple and chewed it slowly while he worked to open communication with the ship. Although he still had mild suspicions the information he had received gave him enough confidence to respond to the signal. He had a weapon to bring with and had more than enough fighting experience if things turned ugly. He knew that he would've regretted more ignoring someone in need than getting himself into trouble.

He rested the apple in his lap when his communication request was accepted and hastily swallowed his mouthful. No visual came up on the screen. Only a bar with the words 'Communication open' was shown to him and his wariness flared at the sight of it. At least the passenger registry offered a crude representation of the captain's image. From what Yamato could discern from the picture he could tell that the captain wasn't human.

"This is GABU, responding to signal AJ9. What's the situation?"

"This is MYOTIS. We have an unresponsive engine. Requesting engineering assistance and a tow."

The captains voice was deep and filled the cabin. Luckily it sounded as though his English was quite strong. Likely this person knew about Earth culture and the protective protocol of the Earthian military over human travellers. A registered human traveller would be dangerous to mess with on an illegal basis. Feeling that bit more confident Yamato replied to Myotis's request.

"I've got you. I'm on my way."

"Roger. Our dock is starboard and we're all set for you."

The line was dropped and Yamato updated the set coordinates to accommodate his detour. He'd been planning on heading straight to Lai to trade the goods he'd bought from the last port. Because it was quite an isolated station he knew that he would get good prices for his stock, especially the more exotic articles like the spices and fabrics. A half a day's delay wouldn't cause too much trouble, though. Maybe Miyotis would even feel fit to reward him for his help. As his ship set in motion the trinkets hung around the cabin clacked together and jingled, victims of the artificial gravity of the ship.

The distressed ship came into view on Yamato's screen and he steered his ship to the starboard side where the docking clamp was awaiting his ship. It was much larger than he'd expected. A cargo ship, by the looks of it, with a bulbous rear to hold a vast load of large items. His own ship was miniscule in comparison. He'd built it when he was a teenager - only big enough to comfortably hold a crew of two. But, since it was only him aboard, he was able to use the extra space for trade items, leaving him only the cabin and a portion of a living space to occupy. He had no thoughts about changing it, though. It was perfect for his humble, solitary lifestyle. While the docking mechanism attached to his ship he regrettably wolfed down the rest of his apple and dropped the core into the waste chute next to his seat. His ship was safely carried into the bay and parked while he gathered his gun and basic engineering tools, preparing to leave. He tucked his gun into his waist strap and covered it with the blue cotton T-shirt that he wore over his second skin. From toe to neck he was almost entirely covered in the black, skin tight protective fabric of the latest model of life suit, so his ratty shirt and styled blond hair were the only personal details he had to his image.

Yamato made a combination of motions across the ship's screen and pulled out his key to turn off the engine.s The light in the cabin died as the screen went blank, leaving only the navigation strip to mark his way to the door. He ran his fingers across the rough, raw metal of his ship's wall as he left. A touch of his key to the scanner and the door opened, revealing the empty landing bay of the ship he'd encountered. The drop to the floor from his ship was quite large, but after practice he'd mastered the technique of properly bending his knees when he landed. There were no people that he could see, but three vastly different ships were docked next to his own. None were branded as trading stock and seemed oddly personal in comparison to the bland and cold bay, like children's toys dropped in a hospital ward. His own ship fit so well among them.

"GABU!"

Yamato spun around at the call of his alias to see a man entering the far side of the bay through a door that was as small as a freckle on a wall that represented the face. As he approached he got taller. He was much taller than the average human could reach, so Yamato could easily assume that he wasn't so. His face that held a bluish pallor and his pointed ears were additional traits of a different race from his own. Yamato felt quite small and weak once the towering, broad shouldered male finally reached him. He held out a hand with long, pointed fingers for Yamato to shake.

"Thank you for your help. I'm completely isolated here. I've had that signal online for two days."

His voice was just as deep as it had sounded in Yamato's ship. The slight growl of his speech seemed to rumble the air around him. When Yamato placed his hand into the other's he felt uncomfortably small and weak but he hid it well with his polite smile.

"It's no problem. Do you know what's wrong with the engine, then?"

The strange man raised one sharp eyebrow and pulled the corner of his lips into a smile, revealing a pair of teeth that resembled those of the vampires from the old fairytales he was read as a child.

"Hmm. Straight to the point. I like that. I'm not sure, to be quite frank. It's not particularly my area of expertise."

Yamato nodded, doing his best to conceal his suspicions. With every moment a stabbing feeling seem to twist deeper into him, warning him of the dangers he sensed. Pressing his arm against the gun at his hip in reassurance that it was still there, he withdrew his hand from the other's and took a subtle step back.

"Alright, then. If I can use the engine control station I should be able to find out the problem. I've got some parts for a quick fix if need be and I've got straight communication to Lai, so they can send a tow out for you. I was heading there myself."

"Perfect. Allow me to show you to the control room."

Myotis crossed one long leg over the other and turned to walk away. Yamato followed in step behind him and relaxed slightly if only to maintain an air of ignorance. His gun was a reassuring weight on his hip. So far he had yet to find any strong evidence that this man had hidden intentions but his intuition persistently warned him not to trust so quickly. It hadn't failed him in the past. As he trailed behind the captain he consciously remained at a two foot distance and was prepared to drop his tools in an instant to defend himself.

The hallway he was lead down was uncomfortably narrow and likely designed with only efficiency in mind. The metal of the walls was stained black and lined with doors similar to the one that they entered by with windows revealing many other large storage spaces. The inside of the ship was equally as stunning as the outside. Yamato couldn't help but look through each window and marvel at the colossal vessel.

"Is it really just you on this ship? I've never seen one so big with a single man crew."

"There's not much necessity for a crew. The larger portion of my ship is purely storage. As you can see, it is empty space."

Miyotis halted at the end of the hallway in front of an open entryway to the smallest room aboard the ship. Yamato shifted his bag of tools off of his arm when he entered the room, still continuing the conversation as Miyotis lead him past several control stations.

"Still, it must get pretty lonely being the only person in such a big place."

"Surely a solitary traveller such as yourself understands the appeal of being independent."

Yamato shrugged his shoulders.

"True. But even I miss having someone to talk to sometimes. My computer's not much of a conversationalist."

Yamato laughed but stopped himself with an awkward cough when he realised that Miyotis had not been as amused as he'd hoped. The tall creature tilted his head and looked down at Yamato, offering a strange, inhuman smile and tapping his fingers against his hip.

"How witty you are."

He commented in a patronising tone. Yamato, confused by the insult, quickly angered and prepared to offer a defensive retort. Before he could speak Miyotis redirected his attention by pulling out a chair in front of a large screen.

"Here. This is the main engine control station. It should give you some information about what the problem is."

"Right."

Yamato dropped his toolkit where he stood and slipped into the seat. Once he was seated Miyotis took a step back and retreated to a comfortable distance. Immediately Yamato set to work, checking the status of the engine components and analysing the faults. He worked quickly and skilfully, easily picking out the smallest defect out of several pages of data.

"It seems like I have come across great fortune to stumble upon someone so able."

Miyotis spoke, his voice sounding slightly further away than Yamato could recall the man standing. He made a note of it, but remained working, or at least pretended to. He listened carefully to detect any shuffling of Miyotis's boots against the floor.

"Yeah, you're pretty lucky I came along. Another day of drifting and you'd end up in void territory. You did drift out here, right?"

He spoke in his previous nonchalant tone but all the while discreetly lowered one of his hands to his hip, only working on the computer with one hand from then on.

"Yes. I must admit that I have been rather..._helpless_."

Miyotis sounded much closer this time. His breath even seemed to brush over Yamato's shoulder, carrying the stench of raw meat. Yamato wrapped his fingers around his gun slowly, hoping that the broad back of the chair would hide his movements. He could feel Miyotis at his back. He'd moved completely silently and now he seemed to loom over the chair, pressing his torso into the back of it.

Yamato didn't hesitate any longer. In a fluid motion he pulled the gun from its holster and spun around in the chair. As he turned he raised his arm and prepared the angle to aim at Miyotis's head. Before he could pull the trigger a large, blue hand shot out and grabbed his head, smothering his nose into a cold palm. He heard his gun go off but he didn't hear any cries of pain and the hand that gripped his head only tightened. With ease he was picked up from the chair and slammed into the solid floor. The pain of his head slamming into the metal was so intense that it forced him to slacken his hold on his gun, resulting in it skidding away from him and his hand that desperately clawed to retrieve. For a moment he gave up all attempts at resisting. Consciousness had left him for only a second, but it was more than enough time for Miyotis to easily command his body. The hand on his head forced it to the side to expose his neck. Then, a bony finger buried itself beneath the collar of his life suit and ripped a long line down to the edge of his shoulder. When Yamato felt a needle penetrate the flesh of his neck he immediately jumped back to life, clawing at Miyotis's wrist and kicking viciously at the body on top of him. Miyotis was like rock. His skin was impossible to tear and Yamato's kicks made no indentation in his stomach. The needle was withdrawn and Yamato released a roar of anger, using every ounce of energy to escape the monster that restrained him.

It didn't take much time for his legs to flop to the floor and his arms to slide down and sleep at his sides. After his final, persistent twitch Miyotis finally released Yamato's head from his grip and revealed two blue eyes that were dull and lifeless, staring beyond the walls of the ship into a place beyond consciousness.

* * *

Yamato groaned in discomfort when a deep shiver coursed through him. For some reason everything seemed to hurt. He felt a solid, cold surface against his bare back and something tightly wrapped over his neck. He opened his eyes but saw only a fog of dark colours. He blinked groggily but his vision hardly seemed to change. He lifted his hands to try and rub his eyes but it wouldn't obey him. It stubbornly remained at his hip and any attempt to move the other arm proved that it was in a similar situation. Now that his senses were slowly returning he could feel the padded straps that trapped his wrists as well as the one that forced his head against the surface behind him , applying a choking pressure onto his neck.

After rolling his eyes around in his sockets his vision began to return to him slowly. Looking down he found his suspicions to be confirmed. His arms were restrained at his sides and his clothes were nowhere to be found. He couldn't move his head to look any closer. All he could do was look forward to stare out of a large transparent window on the surface in front of him. Through it he saw a dark room with the metal walls stained black. He could see a desk with a computer in front of it. Someone was swiping at the screen and pressing buttons. He couldn't quite see their face when they were at that distance.

Suddenly a strange noise seemed to surround him. After he heard several clicks and beeps there came a soft gurgling. His feet began to feel cold and when he shifted them within their restraints he heard quiet splashing. Desperately he tried to look down, but the collar pressing into his chin and compressing his windpipe didn't allow it. He could feel the cold liquid rise up over his ankles and up to his shins, forcing another shiver through him.

He looked forward again, analysing the blurry figure before him and attempting to recall his last memory. He couldn't remember how he ended up in this state but there was something very familiar about the blue skinned man in front of him. The liquid reached up to his navel and when it covered the more sensitive areas of his skin he realised just how cold it was. He couldn't feel his toes and icy needles stabbed into his thighs. His gasp was stifled by the restraint around his neck. He thrashed every limb but none could move beyond their fastenings. He tried to shout out but all he could squeeze through his throat were croaks and squeaks.

Looking back out of the window he discovered that the stranger was now looking at him, approaching the prison that caged him. As he got closer Yamato was able to decipher more of his features and with every step Yamato remembered more of what had happened to him. Rage and humiliation consumed all fear and without care he lurched forward in his restraints and screamed against the pressure across his neck.

"You bottom feeder! You coward! You couldn't even fight me properly!"

Miyotis showed no hint of acknowledgement and continued to silently observe Yamato. The liquid had travelled past his ribs and over his nipples. Ignoring it he spat at the man that stood before him that remained entirely stoic.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, Bastard! Just wait until I get my hands on you! I'll make you regret this!"

Miyotis's lips were pulled across his face and an awful smile took over his features. His two long teeth hung over his bottom lips and his indigo eyes widened in amusement. Yamato forced himself to remain strong even when the liquid travelled up his neck. He gritted his teeth, refusing to break eye contact as the icy liquid covered his lips. After a deep breath through his nostrils he allowed it to cover his face. Through the liquid everything seemed to have a slightly bluish tint to it. Miyotis's face seemed to look darker and the distortion from the liquid's motion pulled his head into menacing shapes.

Yamato forced his tongue into the roof of his mouth. His chest ached as though he was being crushed and his throat was constricted with bruising strength. His lungs spasmed in desperate want for air. On reflex his mouth snapped open and his body automatically inhaled, filling his lungs with the freezing blue liquid. It numbed his gums and oesophagus but inside he could still feel it filling him. When his body made to try and flush the liquid out of him he only took in more.

He had never experienced true panic in his life until that moment. His pride was no match for the terror that filled him. Everything was silent. His lungs burned and he could feel bruises form beneath his restraints as he fought against them. Two dark, smiling eyes watched him until the very last moment before everything went black.

This is what he thought death might feel like.

* * *

**So, this is the prologue. The event that starts off everything. I have never been so excited to start a story. You have no idea ow much I have planned for this thing! I can't wait to write the rest!**

**I hope you enjoyed reading what I enjoyed writing and please leave a review.**

**Thank you for taking the time to visit this fic. I hope you stick around for the main event.**

**Bed. Of. Nails. And. Sandpaper**

**x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wake Up**

* * *

It looked like porridge. It didn't taste like it, though. Taichi pushed it around the bowl in disgust, watching as the viscous slop folded over his spoon

"We seriously have nothing else?"

He looked up at the rest of his crew that were confronted with a similar mess of food. They all displayed slightly reluctant expressions without actually taking a bite. Sora, his navigations officer, rolled her soft brown eyes and consumed a mouthful to counter his complaint. After swallowing the gruel and her shiver of disgust she pointed her spoon at her captain.

"We're docking at Hallard soon, so you could wait until then to get food if you're not that hungry."

With a whine he dropped his head onto the table next to his bowl, spreading his wild brown hair across the matte surface.

"It's like you don't know me at all, do you?"

"Eat up, then. It's good for you."

He looked at his bowl again, not expecting it to look equally as revolting as the first time he saw it. In protest of Sora's mothering order he pushed the bowl completely to the side and rested his arms across the space in front of him.

"Ugh, I feel like I'm back in the academy."

He groaned but no one offered him sympathy. None of them particularly wanted to eat their food, but after a difficult job their resources had been running low for quite some time and they were becoming accustomed to consuming for fuel rather than enjoyment. There was little conversation over their meal. Everyone was tired after their mission and had been working hard to transport their ship to their next destination to restock and recharge. Sleeping hours had been reduced to only four hours a night due to the poor condition of their ship that needed constant maintenance and surveillance. Most of the repairs had been complete at this point but they had still not returned to their usual routine, cautious of another attack while they were still quite vulnerable.

Taichi seemed to have been the one to suffer the most during the scare. Hardly sleeping at all in the past week, he had stayed alert, checking on Koushiro while he made repairs, writing reports for Mimi to communicate to the lead military officer and every so often visiting Jyou to receive further treatment for his bruised ribs after a bandit ship had rammed into them. While they sat in the meal hall for the first time together in a while his eyes seemed to droop in exhaustion, but in a moment he would spring back to life and pretend that he was fully energised for the sake of avoiding the concern of his crew.

Mimi's military issued Digivice beeped loudly on her arm and everyone turned to watch as she read the message she had received. Koushiro had been working endlessly to keep the ship running and often messaged Mimi to save time travelling through the ship to tell his captain in person. With a nod she swiped the small screen to confirm her reply and turned to Taichi.

"Koushiro suggested that we buy another ship at the auction when we get there. We don't want to get stranded again if we have another problem."

"That's not a bad idea. A one or two man one should be good. We're going to buy some fresh food, too, right? No more nutrient packs."

Mimi sighed at his childish exclamation. As the crew member in control of their funds she often received ridiculous requests from him. As a military crew they made hardly any profit and her captains desires for sweets and luxuries were rejected more often than not, though he stubbornly continued to badger her every time they restocked. However, on this occasion, looking at the dark circles beneath his hopeful eyes, she found herself to be more easily coerced.

"Okay, we'll buy some fresh food, but we still need some long life preserves, as well."

The second half of her sentence went completely ignored. As soon as the word 'okay' had passed her lips he was already fantasizing about the feast he was going to spoil himself with.

"We should get some fruit and meat! Oh, and sweets! Yeah, I could really go for a big slice of chocolate cake right now, with strawberries and fresh whipped cream."

A quiet groan from Jyou was heard from the other side of the table.

"Please, stop talking about food. You're putting me off my slop."

His request was punctuated by a particularly loud growl made by his stomach. At the realisation that he was the culprit of such a noise Jyou's face flushed a bright red and he hid his face in his hands. Around him the others chuckled, too tired to laugh properly. Taichi leaned back in his seat and tucked his hands into his hair with a sigh.

"How long until we get there?"

Sora took a glance at her own Digivice that was keeping track of their route.

"Not long. An hour or so, I think."

Taichi nodded in acceptance of her reply and stared down at a patch on the table thoughtfully.

"I want some apples."

He mumbled to himself and felt the saliva gather on his tongue at the thought of the succulent fruit.

* * *

Hallard was one of the largest restock ports registered on the galactic grid - larger than some planets, even - that was the centre of the trading world. Traders from far off planets and wandering nomads could always find a buyer from their stock on Hallard.

As soon as their ship had been docked Taichi rushed off to feel the comfort of solid, unmoving ground beneath his feet. As well built as his ship was the crew experienced a slight sway beneath themwhen it was in motion, mostly when they slept. The comfort that flat, motionless ground supplied Taichi always helped to relieve him after a long and difficult journey. He took in a deep breath and inhaled the air of the market. Cooked foods from hundreds of different cultures wafted down the winding paths of the market towards where he stood. Over his shoulder he heard two other pairs of feet descend down the metal stairs of his ship.

"Hurry up, guys!"

He called out to Mimi and Sora who stubbornly maintained their slow pace towards him. For comfort and to better integrate the two women had both changed out of their military life suits and changed into more casual clothing. Mimi wore a pink dress with a fashionable white life suit beneath it and Sora covered her own personal yellow life suit with a denim jacket. Although being associated with the Earthian military had its perks it also had its disadvantages. Being employed by the military gave the impression to others that their crew received massive funding. Many traders raised their prices as soon as they realised that they were dealing with military soldiers and were stubborn when bartering over stock. Because of this the crew had packed several changes of casual clothes and life suits to use when buying supplies and Taichi himself even donned a casual blue t-shirt. Despite the change of clothes however all three of them still carried their military pistols at their hips and their academy medals around their neck to prevent being pick pocketed or attacked.

Mimi did a final inventory recount on her digivice while the other two gathered their bearings and scouted out what was being sold nearby.

"Koushiro says that we need a new emergency oxygen tank, some material to patch up the docking bay and a new fuel pump if we're going to get another ship."

Taichi nodded absently, distractedly glancing at a stall nearby where a human was arranging his stock.

"Alright. Can you handle that stuff yourself? We'll pick out the food and check out the auctions for a new ship."

He said salivating at the sight of the baskets of fruit from Earth that laid out on display. Already he knew which trader he would do business with first. Sora sighed like a tired mother at his blatant gawking at the fresh food and, realising that he captain wasn't particularly paying attention, Mimi directed her next comment at Sora.

"Okay. I'll meet you two at the auctions when I'm done. Sora, I'll give you the money."

Using her digivice Mimi transferred the right amount of credits to Sora's and when Taichi realised what was going on his head whipped around to look at Mimi.

"Why are you giving it to her?!"

He exclaimed in a high pitched voice and whined when the signal confirming the transaction resounded from Sora's arm. Mimi rested her hands on her hips afterwards and presented him a smug smirk.

"Because you are untrustworthy."

Immediately after scolding him her smile returned to her face when she looked at Sora.

"Remember, for the food, 70% preserves and 30% fresh."

"Got it."

Taichi huffed and crossed his arms resentfully.

"Fine. We'll see you at the auctions, then."

Mimi parted with a wave and a smile, setting off in her own direction towards the technical side of the market while Taichi dragged Sora in whatever direction took his fancy. First he satisfied his stomach by buying apples and nectarines, promising to share what was left of them with the rest of the crew to avoid a lecture from Sora. Nibbling on his fruit the two of them strolled through the market, wandering happily around the stalls and ordering supplies to be delivered to their ship while they completed their purchases. After buying what all that was necessary and heading towards the auctions on the other side of the station a stall blanketed in bright silks caught Taichi's eye and he stopped in front of it. Displayed around the stall were jars of coloured powder and dried leaves of all types.

"Whoa, Avarian spices!" He exclaimed in awe and looked up at the trader. "Hey, can I have a sample of some of these?"

The Avarian nodded her head, disturbing the strands of white hair that surrounded her long face. She wrapped her spindly fingers around one of the jars filled with a garish orange powder, indicating for him to sample it. With a thankful nod he took the jar from her, raised it to his nose and inhaled the rich scent while Sora bounced nervously on her toes beside him.

"Taichi, we need to go or we'll miss the good items at the auction."

He lowered the jar back to the table with a sigh of pleasure.

"The Hallard ship auctions are huge. There's no way they'd run out. How much is a jar of this?"

Taichi pointed at the jar in a questioning gesture, understanding that perhaps the Avarian didn't understand much English. Although Avarians were typically rather tight lipped she seemed to be making even less of an effort to speak and observed his face in concentration to decipher what it ws that her customer was asking of her.

"Fourteen credits."

The trader spoke in strained, quiet English and brushed away the hair that had been caught on the external bone that lined her cheeks.

"Great! I'll take some."

"Taichi!"

Sora complained but could not deter him. With a smile he resealed the jar of spices and tucked it under his arm with a cheeky smile.

"Go on and pay the nice lady."

With Taichi staring at her expectantly and the trader waiting to receive her payment Sora resigned with a sigh and used her digivice to transfer the money to the trader. The trader diverted her yellow eyes towards the stall computer and nodded when the payment was complete. The trader bowed her head in thanks, finally offering a smile to the two of them as they moved on. Taichi patted the jar in satisfaction while Sora sulked and huffed a few paces a head.

"You're just like a child. If it was up to you you'd spend all of our money on a whim."

"Calm down. Fourteen credits is nothing. Here, smell this."

Catching up to her he uncapped the jar and held it towards her face. Although her expression displayed her disinterest she complied. Lowering her nose into the jar she lightly inhaled the spices and moved back with a surprised expression.

"That's...actually really nice. It's kind of like cinnamon, isn't it?"

With an excited nod Taichi replaced the lid and safely tucked the jar back under his arm.

"Yeah. Like a spicy sort of cinnamon. It goes great on lots of things. At least when we run out of the good stuff this might liven up the slop."

Sora nodded in agreement but secretly chastised herself for giving in to his antics so easily. Mimi had always been much more skilled at keeping their captain in check while Sora always seemed to be swept away by his playful personality.

"Besides, it matches your hair."

Taichi laughed and flicked a strand of Sora's fiery locks that brushed her shoulders. Batting his hand away she smiled and continued down their route, only half listening as he continued on the conversation.

"I'm kind of surprised to see an Avarian trader here, though. The last time I saw one was on Earth. They're really homebound, aren't they?"

"They came to earth?"

Sora asked offhandedly and stole an apple from the bag hanging off of Taichi's arm. Biting into it she looked up at Taichi to see him happily staring off into the distance, recalling the story he was about to tell.

"Yeah. Not willingly, really. It was a trade ship that had to make an emergency landing. They went to Yamato's dad to get their ship fixed, so we got to meet them. We convinced them that dogs were vicious animals that were going to eat them, so when the neighbour's dog came up to them they practically ran for their lives. The poor suckers hid in the house until their ship was patched up enough for them to escape."

He chuckled to himself and unconsciously stroked the medal around his neck. Sora smiled and nudged his arm.

"It's been a while since you told us a story about Yamato."

She said wistfully and Taichi released a slightly depressed sigh.

"Hmm, I just thought I'd ran out of stuff to tell you guys. I talked about him non-stop when our crew got together."

She nodded in understanding. The crew had been together for over four years now and during that time Taichi's old friend Yamato always seemed to be relevant to their conversation. During meal times, when television became too tedious to watch, they could always rely on Taichi to supply them with a story about their childhood adventures together. He told them about good times and bad, loosing himself in his memories and happy to pull the others along for the ride. The crew knew so much about Yamato now that sometimes it seemed like they had known him as well and they were all anticipating the day when they would finally be able to meet him.

The stories had died down over the past year and Taichi's once warm expression when remembering his old friend had become melancholy and pensive. He would fall into sorrowful silences and cling to the medal around his neck that had Yamato's name engraved into it. Secretly he found it painful to talk about him now. The five years they had spent apart was far too long. Yamato had not once come in range of his ship to make contact and whenever Taichi returned to Earth it was to find that Yamato had not yet returned and the pain and worry would be freshly afflicted upon him.

A comforting stroke down his arm from Sora's hand cleared the dark fog over him and he gave her a reassuring smile. Together they cleared the final distance to the ship auctions in a comfortable silence, content to survey the rest of the market and covet the luxuries that they couldn't afford with their meagre military funding.

The concrete flooring of the market gave way to the sturdy metal of the auction floor. The space in front of them was as large as the entire market if not even larger and rows of ships arranged by size were displayed and numbered in the centre. On the right stood a small podium where people gathered to bid on the ships and enquire about them with the auctioneers and sellers.

"I told you they wouldn't run out."

Taichi teased and sped up his walking pace to approach the smaller ships. Stuck to the side of each ship was a number in large writing and written smaller below it was the basic information about it (measurements, condition, brand, age and installed system). Both of them were spoilt for choice. The quality ranged from crude, independently made ships to recent military models. Sora rushed over to a ship similar to the latter. It was small and sleek, looking like a black knife with a pointed front and expanding into an efficiently organised living space in the rear.

"Look at this one!" She exclaimed and leant forward to read the information about it. "Living quarters for two; basic military navigation programmes installed; a weapons hold. It looks pretty good, right? Should we bid on this one?"

Stroking her hand across the matte exterior she waited for her captain to voice his opinion. He stood beside her but she could tell that his attention was elsewhere.

"Taichi?"

She stood back up to her full height and turned to look at him but saw that his gaze was glued to another ship.

"What's the matter?"

In an instant he was off, storming with conviction towards his target while Sora confusedly jogged after him. The look of determination on his face deterred her from protesting, so she kept silent and stumbled to keep up with his pace. He came to a sudden holt in front of a small ship. It looked as though it had been made by hand. It was small but quite bulky and awkward with white jagged stripes painted vertically down its body. Taichi stared intently at every detail of the craft, not caring to read the information about it.

"I know this ship."

He muttered to himself. Sora raised her brow at the cryptic statement and followed him as he circled the ship, brushing his hand across the body and peering into the open entryway. Sora leaned down to read the information written on the side.

"Living quarters for two; independently designed; minimal storage space; Earthian designed cryogenic engine-"

"It's GABU."

Taichi interrupted.

"GABU? You mean Yamato's ship?"

In awe Sora took a step back in order to fit the entire ship within her range of vision. Finding tangible evidence of Yamato's existence beyond his Academy medal that hung round Taichi's neck was truly surreal and pressing her hand against the cool metal exterior she felt that much closer to the stranger. Next to her Taichi's hands had curled into fists and his eyes had turned steely.

"No doubt about it." He bit through his teeth and his face contorted into an expression of anguish and confusion.

"Do you think he sold it?"

"Absolutely no way. He and his Dad built this from scratch - worked on it for years. He wouldn't just sell it."

"Then...something happened to him?"

"I don't know."

Taichi ascended the small set of stairs that had been put in place in order to reach the entrance that stood at the height of their shoulders. Halfway up the short climb a powerful smell hit him; sickly sweet but foul. It was the smell of rotten fruit. At some auctions traders often left the ships entirely intact and complete with the belongings of the last crew in order to increase bids. Sometimes deceptively poor ships were filled with rich trade and expensive stock and little was done to investigate what had been illegally acquired. It was the best way to profit on stolen goods without getting caught.

Taichi only recoiled at the smell, but Sora squealed in disgust and covered the lower half of her face with the sleeve of her jacket. The smell grew more powerfully as they properly entered the ship. Suffering through another inhale Taichi was immediately able to locate the source. In one long stride he managed to cross the space of the entryway towards the storage hold. Sora remained by the door, taking deep inhales of the air of outside when she could while still keeping her eye on her captain.

The deeper Taichi made his way into the ship the more certain he became that it belonged to Yamato. His sensory memory kicked in and automatically he moved around the space, recognising each detail that caught his eye. At the end of the storage space was a temperature controlled container and lifting the top he found the source of the smell. He leant back and stifled a retching motion when a basket full of soggy, brown apples were revealed to him.

"Oh my Earth! How long have those been in there?!"

Sora exclaimed when she looked over his shoulder to see them, taking short sharp breaths through the denim sleeve over her mouth. He allowed the lid to drop shut and escaped the stench by moving towards the front of the ship to the control cabin. Sora didn't follow. As intrigued as she was by the ships contents the smell was too sickly for her to bare any longer and she exited to wait for him outside.

Taichi carefully observed every detail that he could, now completely convinced that Yamato did not part with his ship of his own volition. The seat of the cabin was still strewn with cushions and blankets to maximise comfort while piloting. Hanging from a peg attached to the bottom of the screen of the main computer was a vast collection of knickknacks and souvenirs. There looked to be nearly a hundred of them all tangled together. He lifted up his palm beneath them and bore the weight, surprised by how heavy they were. He recalled Yamato's parting promise to bring him back souvenirs and smiled sadly.

"Are these all for me, Yamato? You've really gotten around, haven't you?"

He whispered to himself and moved his hand so that they all fell between his fingers. There was one however that was not knotted together with the others and it fell into his palm as if by fate. On a sturdy silver chain hung a round, silver medal with the Earthian insignia stamped onto it; two human hands lifting Earth's symbol of a cross within a circle. Around the top border of the medal were the words 'Earthian Academy' and on the bottom was a name.

'Taichi Yagami'

A spike of pain struck his chest and his breath caught in his throat. Instinctively he raised his hand to his chest and clenched the similar medal around his neck in a tight grip. He knew in an instant that Yamato had not sold his ship of his own free will. With renewed conviction he removed the medal from the peg and placed it next to it's brother around his neck. His feet hit the floor heavily in his frustration as he exited the craft and Sora stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him. From her first glance of his solemn face she knew that any hopes that they'd had had been dashed.

"Taichi?"

She asked when he walked right past her and headed in the direction of the auctioneer's stall.

"He didn't sell this ship."

"Is it stolen?"

"That's the best case scenario. I'm going to talk to the auctioneer."

No more was needed to be said and Sora followed in step beside him. Now was not the appropriate time for words of comfort. Seeing the tenseness of his jaw as he grit his teeth she took a step into his path before he could reach the stall and pressed a stern hand across his chest.

"Let me do the talking."

Sora could tell from the grinding of his teeth that he wanted to deny that suggestion and relieve his anger upon the unsuspecting auctioneer. But, looking into the calm yet assertive gleam of her soft eyes he knew that she would handle the situation more efficiently while avoiding any accusations of misconduct. For once he set his pride aside, repressed his temper and allowed her to lead. He had complete faith in her, both professionally and as a close friend.

Sora discreetly brushed her hair into a neater style in order to seem more serious. The auctioneer was sat beside the small podium where people had begun to gather in wait for the next auction. He was a Vegie by the looks of it; a plant-like creature with a bulbous yellow body covered in thick roots and a long, pointed snout. As the two approached his sharp red eyes followed their movements and lowered a wooden cup from his lips that he held in his boneless appendages. He bounced out of his seat to meet them and dressed his face in a deceptively wide smile, his pointed teeth peeking down over his bottom lip.

"How may I help you two? Has any of my stock caught your eye?"

His voice couldn't settle on one pitch and when he spoke the plume of leaves on his head wobbled with his voice. Sora was careful to remain completely emotionless in her expression and asserted her dominance with a rigid posture.

"Lot 415, who's the seller?"

The auctioneer looked up at Taichi who loomed menacingly over Sora's shoulder. Smugly he narrowed his eyes at the two of them.

"I'm sorry, but we do not give out that information."

Before the auctioneer could say another word Sora brought up her credentials on her digivice and lifted her arm to display the screen to the auctioneer.

"My name is Sora Takenouchi and this is Captain Taichi Yagami of Earthian Military team DM01. That ship is registered to a human under the protection of the Earthian Academy and we have reason to suspect that that ship has been acquired illegally. Unless you do not want to be prosecuted for this issue I suggest that you cooperate."

The creature's face immediately fell and a nervous sweat broke out across his brow. He darted his eyes back and forth between the officer and captain that stood before.

"I'm sorry. We do not keep record of our sellers. These people prefer to trade anonymously."

"And you're willing to accept the consequences of being in possession of stolen goods?"

He stiffened further and the swaying of his appendages at his side ceased.

"It's just how we work. You won't find a ship auction anywhere that's completely legal. They come with goods, we buy it from them and within a day it's sold again. No names or information are given. We have no affiliation with sellers or how they got the ships."

Taichi released an agitated sigh that sounded remarkably like a growl and the auctioneer flinched before stuttering his next suggestion.

"Ma-Maybe you could check the ship's computer! The seller's information might be on there."

In anticipation he looked towards them in wait for a positive response. Sora looked back at Taichi and in a moment a silent conversation had occurred between them.

"Very well. We'll give you eight thousand for that ship."

"The auction hasn't started, yet."

"We want to buy it upfront. If you think you can get as much for it in the auction then fine, but we won't be bidding."

Now that he knew he likely wasn't being prosecuted the auctioneer sceptically bit the inside of his lip and considered the offer. Eight thousand was hardly anything. Most ships of a similar size would sell for no less than fifteen. However, the rotting stock in the storage hold would likely have a massive affect on the amount of bidders and so, in challenge he tilted his head upward to meet Sora's hard gaze.

"Nine thousand."

"Done. Our relations officer will be with you shortly to give you your payment."

The auctioneer had no choice to accept. He was lucky enough to receive payment at all when they could have easily confiscated the ship as evidence and left him with nothing. From a locked case next to his chair her retrieved the ship's key. The electronic key was definitely something that Taichi recognised when he saw it and so he reached over Sora's shoulder to take it before she could. He turned it in his hand in fascination, stroking his thumb long the long, black pyramid body and the square base where a chain had been attached. He wrapped the chain around his wrist, remembering how Yamato would do exactly the same when he held it, and walked away without a parting word.

As he crossed the auction floor, with Sora taking long strides behind him in order to keep up, a body of garish pink came into view heading towards them. Mimi met them with a smile, oblivious of their tense expressions

"Hey. You guys seen any good ships?"

She greeted cheerfully and skipped the final steps to reach them.

"We already bought one." Taichi snapped and walked straight past her. In shock at her captain's cold treatment she turned to Sora for an explanation.

"What? You bought one?"

Instead of explaining the situation Sora softly grabbed Mimi's arm and pulled her along beside them while they headed towards the ship in the lot. As they approached GABU Taichi fiddled with the key around his wrists and climbed the stairs. Mimi surveyed it with a confused grimace

"This one?"

She questioned, blatantly unimpressed by its outward appearance in comparison to the others. Taichi kicked away the stairs and hung on the frame of the entrance as he passed his order.

"Pay the auctioneer and make sure our orders get to the ship. I have something important to do."

With that he pulled himself into the ship and sealed the entrance behind him while the two women stood perplexed. They retreated to a safe distance when he started the engine and the craft took off in a hurry and flew over the market towards where their ship was docked. Mimi turned to Sora and shrugged her shoulders.

"What just happened?"

Sora sighed in worry before returning to her professional role.

"Come on. We have jobs to do."

Seeing Sora with a solemn expression Mimi realised that it was time for her as well to carry out her task without question and the two of them left to carry out their captain's orders.

* * *

**So, welcome to the first official chapter!Huzah! I hope you like it. It's a bit tricky trying to describe all the scifi ideas without interrupting the story too much, so if there's any confusion please let me know and I'll do a bit of a rewrite.**

**Reviews would be greatly appreciated**

**Thank you all for reading!**

**Bed. Of. Nails. And. Sandpaper**

**x**


	3. Chapter 3

**Wake Up**

* * *

In the control room Koushiro was taking his first proper break in three days. He preferred to sit near the main computer where he could still keep an eye on things and Jyou had been kind enough to sit with him, bringing him a steaming cup of tea and a quick snack that he'd purchased from the closest food stall. Together they revelled in the calm silence, not caring to break it with menial conversation. There was no rushing around to get things fixed, no panicked calls or cries of things going wrong and no patients that needed monitoring. All there was was peace and quiet. A notification from the ship's computer put an end to that, however. Placing his tea into the holder attached to his chair Koushiro leant over to swipe at the screen.

"I think Taichi's just docked in the new ship."

He said and accessed the surveillance camera of the ship's bay to confirm his assumption. Parked among the new stock that they'd purchased and had yet to put away was a small black and white striped ship; not at all what he'd been expecting. Jyou stood up from his own chair and looked over Koushiro's shoulder, brushing away the dark hair that had fallen over his eyes.

"Is that it?"

His tone of voice revealed his scepticism and he tilted his head to see it from a different angle, thinking that perhaps there was something that he was missing - a reason why out of all others this was the ship that Taichi had chosen. Taichi was the type that always preferred what was new and shiny. He loved to fiddle with and brag about high tech equipment that he had no clue how to operate and all sorts of the latest models of useless gizmos and gadgets. The ship that was displayed on the screen in front of them seemed to be nothing like that from what judgements they could make from the appearance of the exterior. Koushiro nodded his head in agreement and twisted his head to look at Jyou.

"Maybe you should check it out."

"Yeah, I'll do that. You going to be alright here?"

"I'll be fine. I have my food. It's better if I stay here to supervise everything."

"Alright. I'll let you know what's going on."

Jyou patted Koushiro's shoulder in farewell and sighed tiredly as he set off on his way towards the ship's bay. He languidly strolled down the long passageway, pressing his hands into the small of his back and pulling his spine in attempt to crack it. His joints were stiff with stress and lack of rest. Taichi had always been an uncooperative patient and more often Jyou found himself chasing after his captain and scolding him for overexerting himself instead of actually treating him. He could only hope that now was the time for them all to rest and recover and his job on the ship would become a lot easier because of it.

Entering the bay he observed that the surveillance camera had hardly distorted the image of the ship. Up close it looked much like it had done on screen - unimpressive and much more like a domestic ship than anything that could be used for military purposes. It looked to be well put together and sturdy, but not impressive or powerful. He circled around to the entrance and saw it open but Taichi had yet to emerge and a horrid sickly stench wafted from the opening.

"Taichi?"

He called out, not wanting to enter if it wasn't necessary.

"I'm in here."

Came Taichi's voice from inside, sounding stoic and sharp. Jyou climbed into the ship clumsily and cupped his hand over his mouth and nose to defend against the smell. He quickly looked around for Taichi among the clutter and found him sitting in the captain's seat tampering with the computer. He approached cautiously after noticing the stiffness of Taichi's shoulders as he tapped the screen.

"Taichi? Everything okay?"

Taichi's only response was a distracted hum and shrug as he continued with his task. Looking over his shoulder Jyou could hardly keep up with Taichi's movements across the screen. Pages of code appeared and disappeared under the command of Taichi's fingers and Jyou watched in awe as his usually ditzy captain worked with a skill that he hadn't demonstrated before. After scanning several pages of data Taichi slammed his fist into the arm of his seat.

"The system's been completely wiped. The only thing left on it is the last coordinates, which is in void territory."

"Well, what are you looking for?"

"Any information on the person who sold this ship."

Jyou racked his brain for ideas.

"Maybe there's something on the communication record."

Taichi nodded, accepting the suggestion, and brought the information up on the screen. As luck would have it the information hadn't been deleted and a list of contacts popped up, displaying the names of different ships and people that he didn't recognise. Scrolling down through the list he reached the last name. All that was written was the name of the ship - MYOTIS - and a date from two months earlier.

"There's no previous record of having come in contact with MYOTIS. Maybe this is the person that found the ship."

Jyou, still not fully understanding the situation, agreed with him but gave no further input. Taichi transferred the information for MYOTIS onto his Digivice and pushed himself out of the chair.

"Mimi and Sora should be on their way back soon. Can you guys clear this place out while I'm gone?"

"Sure, but where are you going?"

"To find more information on this ship. Only throw away what's necessary in here. Keep whatever you can."

"Yes, sir."

The formal response felt strange on Jyou's tongue. The crew hardly ever called him sir unless in public, but in this instance, where Taichi had fully integrated into his role as captain, it seemed fitting. While Jyou began to clear the ship Taichi made his way to the control room and the ship's main computer. Koushiro still sat in the same chair that Jyou had left him in but only a few crumbs and tea leaves at the bottom of his cup remained of his snack. He twisted around in his chair expecting Jyou to be standing in the doorway. He was only mildly surprised to find his captain instead.

"You're back."

He said and brushed the crumbs off of his lap. Taichi travelled across the room in a few long strides and sat in the chair next to him.

"Hey, Koushiro. Can you look up the information for a ship called MYOTIS?"

"Do you have the registration number?"

Taichi looked at the information on his Digivice.

"Yeah. It's 0965821."

Koushiro faced the computer again and accessed the Traveller Registry - the index that stored information on all registered ships and their owners. Typing in the name and registration number only one ship came up as a result. Quickly he scanned the basic information about it.

"One passenger is registered to that ship. His name is also Myotis. Species unspecified. Freelance tradesman. No criminal history."

Swiping his finger down the screen he searched through the additional information that was only given to Military registered computers; travel history, recent transactions and current locations were included.

"He's on Hallard. His ship is docked in 449."

Feeling a sense of urgency take over Taichi jumped up from his seat and memorised the number. He adjusted the gun on his hip and rearranged his shirt to better conceal it.

"Right. Let me know if he makes any purchases and send his information to the other guys. Tell them to get in touch with me if they see him around."

"Is this for a mission?"

Taichi analysed the picture of Myotis displayed on the large screen. His eyes were sharp and dark and though his mouth was lax and expressionless his eyes seem to squint as though he was smiling. Perhaps it was the mystery behind him that made the picture seem menacing and difficult to look at for too long. Taichi found himself lowering his gaze to see Koushiro looking up at him in concern. He ruffled his crew members red hair as a comforting gesture but he could not muster the small courtesy of a smile.

"Not quite. It's personal business for now, but it's important. I need to find this guy before he leaves."

"Is something wrong?"

"Maybe. It's too soon to say. Just keep me updated."

"Will do."

Immediately Koushiro set to work transferring Myotis's information to the rest of the crews' Digivices and Taichi left him to it. He made his way back into the market once again, this time in an Eastward direction towards one of the three other large docking lots. He continued to repeat the number '449' in his head as he made his way through the crowds of people and overflowing stalls. If he'd had the money he would have jumped on the tram to shorten his journey, but instead he maintained a fast paced stride and managed to reach it in just about twenty minutes. The docking lot that he found was one specifically for large ships. Making his way down the rows of massive vehicles he counted up the numbers; 429, 432, 437, 446, 447, 448.

Sitting in dock 449 was a cargo ship of incomprehensible size. It was shaped much like an insect with a small round head, where the main control room likely was, and a bulging rear with two fins attached to either side. A ship like MYOTIS could hold a plethora of stock and goods. It could probably carry over five times his own ship.

Mesmerised by the colossal piece of engineering in front of him he hardly noticed the incoming call from his Digivice. Pressing the pad of his finger against the small screen he opened communication between himself and Sora and pressed against the speaker hooked on his ear to better hear her over the crowd.

"Taichi, I saw the guy you're looking for. There was too much of a crowd to stop him, but he's on his way to the east docks."

"Yeah, I'm waiting for him by his ship. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem. I'm on my way over there now. Don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Alright. See you in a bit."

Ending the call he brought up Myotis's image on his Digivice and looked it over again. Memorising it he looked up and scoured his surroundings for blue skin and yellow hair. Sure enough a figure with those features began to approach and Taichi walked ahead to meet him. The closer Myotis came the larger he appeared until he was only a foot away and towering over him.

"Captain Myotis?"

The stranger tilted his head in question.

"Yes. Do you have business with me?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm Captain Taichi Yagami of Earthian Military team DM01. One of the ships that you sold to the auction is registered under the protection of the Earthian Academy. I have some questions about how you came in possession of it."

The dark eyes that looked down at him held no expression when he smiled.

"I understand. Would you like to talk inside my ship?"

"No thank you. I'd prefer if we spoke out here. Do I have your consent to having this conversation recorded?"

"Yes, you have my consent."

Taichi activated the recording programme on his Digivice.

"At what date did the ship GABU enter your possession?"

As he spoke his words appeared on the screen on his arm to accompany the sound recording and seeing them confirmed that their conversation would be successfully stored. Myotis shrugged and placed a casual hand on his hip.

"I'm not sure of it exactly, but I think two months ago would be a reasonable estimate."

"And _how_ exactly did you come across it?"

"It was abandoned. I had responded to a distress signal but it was empty when I found it. I was able to open communication with the ship but I didn't receive any more than silence."

"Did you not check the ship's computer to track down the captain before selling it?"

"It was blank."

"So, you found it empty, couldn't find an owner, picked it up and took it straight here?"

"I didn't come directly here from where I had found the ship. I am a tradesman and I had to visit a few stations on the way to deliver items."

"Does the name Yamato mean anything to you?"

Myotis appeared to be entirely indifferent. No question phased him in the slightest and his face seemed to sustain the same disinterested expression without even a flicker of emotion, as though he were a machine with no life to him.

"No, I can't say it does. Does it hold any significance?"

He solidly held eye contact with Taichi as though he were taunting him, daring him to find a chink in his armour. Taichi met the challenge and quashed any fluctuations in his own, stoic expression.

"It is the name of the original captain which would be documented on the Traveller Registry if you had looked up the information before selling the craft."

"My cargo ship does not have the appropriate system to access the TR, I'm afraid. And besides, ship auctions are never the safest ways to buy and sell ships. I am not the only crooked salesman. I assure you, that ship had no captain when I took it."

"Very well. If you don't mind, I'd like to have an updated account of your communication serial, in case I need to get in touch again."

Myotis nodded and from memory spoke aloud the series of numbers and letters that could be used to contact him. After that Taichi ended the recording and out of obligation he gave his own communication serial to Myotis and told him to inform him if he found any new information. He could already tell that Myotis likely wouldn't try to get in contact with him in the future.

"I'm sorry I could not be of more help."

Myotis pulled the same face as the one Taichi had seen on his Digivice. His expression was seemingly blank but his eyes seemed to be smiling. Taichi felt as though the shadowy blue of this stranger's eyes had seeped into him and he felt a heavy ball drop into the pit of his stomach. If he hadn't been able to recall Sora's last warning to him he would have gladly grabbed the man by his neck and throttled him until he gave him the truth. Instead he forced himself to nod stiffly and watched the man retreat into his ship. He shakily filled his lungs with air until they were fit to burst and exhaled through his clenched teeth.

"Taichi?"

A feminine hand was placed softly on his shoulder and banished the anger that had almost taken over him. Sora had observed the whole thing from a few feet away and felt nothing but pride for her captain for the way he had handled the situation. When he turned his head to her she could only give him a small sympathetic smile but he appreciated the gesture more than any words of comfort.

"So, what do you think?"

"He's a good liar, but his story doesn't hold up. His ship would have to be thirty years old to not have access to the TR, and his looks brand new."

"We should head back to the ship. There's not much we can do until we find some evidence."

Taichi's gaze lingered on MYOTIS as he turned to follow Sora. When they returned to the ship he headed straight for the main control room, intent on working with Koushiro to gather more information. However, what he found was the rest of his crew doing the job for him. When Sora and himself entered the room all three pairs of eyes turned to look at him. Koushiro turned back to his work quickly after making eye contact and Mimi stood up from her station to approach Taichi. She crossed her arms and spoke in a scolding voice.

"Taichi, what's going on? We've all been looking for info on this guy but we don't know what for. You better start explaining."

Taichi sighed despairingly before speaking plainly.

"The ship I bought from the auction is GABU - Yamato's ship. Myotis is the tradesman that put it in the auction."

Mimi's expression softened in regret of her harsh tone and a hand was pressed to her lips to cover her gasp.

"Oh no."

Taichi raised his hand to put a stop to her panicking and on her captain's command she calmed down, though there was still underlying anxiety in the way she looked at him.

"We're not going to jump to conclusions yet. Yamato might still be okay. For all we know his ship could've been stolen and he's just stranded somewhere, but we need to investigate this guy to make sure. Koushiro, could you look up this guy's trading record for the past year?"

"Already found it."

"Anything suspicious?"

Koushiro's eyes rapidly scanned the screen and picked out the needed information. As he spoke Taichi approached to stand next to him.

"His registered profit is unremarkable. Other than a few irregular contributions to the Hallard ship auctions he occasionally transports weaponry and supplies to several different military stations, including Earth, and has done some freelance planetary trading."

"What's his average profit?"

"Per month, roughly between forty to fifty thousand."

"That's way too low. There's no way he could maintain a ship that large with that measly number."

Taichi shook his head, convinced by now that Myotis was unequivocally not the innocent man he'd claimed to be. Whether or not he was the actual perpetrator had yet to be established.

"He might be doing some undocumented trading on the side."

Sora interjected and Jyou was the one to reply.

"You mean the criminal market?"

He said, intrigued by the idea. Everyone knew that such a business likely existed but evidence confirming it had never been found by any sort of authority. Usually they would only find undocumented goods and persons receiving suspiciously large payments that could not be accounted for in their trading history, such as the current case.

"That's our best bet. But it's what he might be trading that's bothering me."

Taichi agreed and felt his stomach twist at the thought of what sort of goods could be valuable enough to sell at such a price. While he pondered over his worries a musical tone sounded from the computer when Myotis's record was updated. Koushiro quickly investigated the new information.

"He's leaving."

"Right now?"

"He's just signed out of the station."

"We should follow him."

Mimi suggested but Taichi cut her short.

"We're too big. He'd notice us."

"Then take GABU. Jyou and I cleaned it out and synched its system to ours, so Koushiro can keep an eye on your coordinates."

Looking at Jyou, Taichi saw him nodding his head in agreement with Mimi.

"Okay. Sora, come with me. Koushiro, catch up to us in two hours. Keep a low profile."

"Got it."

Taichi immediately turned to leave and Sora followed, surreptitiously glancing over her shoulder at the others who shared worried looks among themselves. Quickly after, each person carried out their orders with the same diligence as they would when on an official assignment. All of them promptly returned to their stations in preparation to fulfil their role on the mission, each with stern determination now that the severity of the situation had been clarified. Taichi's silence while he stormed down the passageway was more a cause for concern than any outburst. Sora and Taichi had walked the same passageway together many times before and he would always find an excuse to talk. But, this time, he hurried on ahead without saying a word. His fast pace hardly accommodated the shorter legs of his navigations expert and Sora had to occasionally take a long, leaping step in order to keep up with him.

Taichi's mind was working twice as hard and twice as fast as his legs. He repeated what information he knew so far to reassure himself that he was making progress in finding Yamato. The thought that his childhood friend was lost, trapped, a prisoner, or, worse yet, reduced to little more than organs in a freezer had him in a restless frenzy. If his career and the livelihood of his crew hadn't been at stake he would have forgone the need for evidence and interrogated Myotis in a far less reasonable manner than he had done. The ease at which he could have drawn his gun from the holster on his hip had been dangerously tempting. But all he had the power to do was follow protocol, lest he risk the entire mission by breaking the law and relinquish power to another team without the same motivation that he had. Even if his position restricted his strategy, he was determined to find Yamato. He would find evidence, he would find Yamato and then he would deliver his punishment to who had been responsible. After that they would return to Earth together, just as they had planned to do so long ago.

* * *

**Phew! This chapter was more difficult than I had expected. I was going to continue this chapter on for a lot longer but it would have ended a bit awkwardly if I had done. Instead I just had to sort out a finishing paragraph, which was pretty tricky. Anyway, I hope you guys like the new chapter! I think from here on out there's going to be a bit more action rather than just set up, so I hope you stick around to read the rest.**

**I would love some reviews! To the guys that have reviewed so far**

**prodigious11  
Pandora's-Wonderland  
Chyn  
Disgruntled the 8th dwarf**

**thank you so much! I loved hearing from you guys and you've really kept me motivated to keep this fic on track :). And to those who have faved or followed, thanks to you, as well! I won't let you down and maybe you could tell me a bit about what you think so far another time ;)**

**Until next time!**

**Bed. Of. Nails. And. Sandpaper**

**x**


	4. Chapter 4

**Wake Up**

* * *

Instead of the acrid stink of rotten apples the ship was filled with the sharp cent of cleaning chemicals that tickled the nose from the inside. Taichi slid easily into the main control chair and Sora stood at his back.

"Do you know how to fly this thing?"

Taichi shrugged and closed the ship's entrance before running quickly through the take off procedure.

"Well, I got it here, didn't I?"

"That's not very reassuring."

"Relax. I flew this ship before it was even legal."

"Still not getting any better."

"Just watch."

Confidently he started up the ship and eased it towards bay door that had been left open for him. Sora ignored the second chair that she could secure herself into and instead gripped the back of Taichi's chair with a deathly tightness, offering guidance when the ship teetered slightly in the wrong direction. When they had finally made it out of the bay Taichi boldly pulled back on the controls and the ship jerked forward at a shocking speed. They shot out of the port into open space with a power that neither had anticipated and both of them were forced backwards. Taichi was pushed until his back was flush against his seat and Sora just about managed to avoid falling by clinging to the back of the chair with both hands. Neglected and forgotten, a jar of orange spices precariously resting on the control board was thrown from its place and tumbled to the floor, certain to shatter if it made impact.

"Careful!"

Sora cried out and leapt forward to catch the delicate object. She reached out her hand to intercept it and as soon as it was firmly in her hold she pulled it safely into her chest. Taichi rectified his mistake and slowed the ship down, sighing in shaky relief. He then looked apologetically over his shoulder at Sora who was still rigid with shock.

"Sorry. It's a lot more powerful than I remembered."

"Just take it easy and slow down. We need to keep our distance. We can't race him if we don't know where he's going."

Taichi nodded and returned to facing forward, sinking into his seat in embarrassment.

"Right. Yeah."

He mumbled and shifted his fingers into the grooves on the steering handles. Sora cautiously took a step back and steadied herself back onto her feet.

"I'll put this in the back."

Taichi nodded absently and focused on the screens in front of him, keeping a close eye on the coordinates of Myotis's ship. As Sora made her way towards the storage area in the rear of the ship she took careful, shallow breaths, anticipating some of the awful smell of rotting apples to still be lingering. Pivoting around in the small space she looked for a secure home for the jar and found a high cupboard that would suit just fine. She twisted the lock to open it and found most of Yamato's old stock still secured to the shelves by padded straps to prevent them from rattling around. There were cans and sachets of food preserves organised neatly together as well as odd miscellaneous containers. It was a typical food cupboard like the several on her own ship. There was one thing that caught her eye, however. Towards the front of the shelf was a small, clear jar filled with brown, soil-like granules, almost exactly like the one she held in her hand. Awkwardly she unclipped it from its holder with her free hand and placed both jars on a small counter directly below the cupboard.

Besides their contents, both jars were exactly alike. Their size, shape, design and even the slightly misty quality to the glass after it had been poorly polished were more than similar. Thoughtfully Sora placed her hands on top of each jar and bent forward to look at them closer, an uncomfortable knot tightening around her stomach. Although she hated to make assumptions with such little information, she couldn't help but presume that both jars had likely come from the same source. Tapping on the side of the jar from Yamato's cupboard she noticed clumps of the brown granules dislodge from the edges of the pile and retain their shape as the rolled into the well in the centre. They were moist and mossy but not from mould. It looked more to be a sort of edible fungus that was still fresh. There were no irregular growths and the jar itself had only a thin coating of dust on the lid unlike some of the other products in the cupboard that looked as though they had been out of use for a lot longer.

The more information she realised the more a certain conclusion seemed to nag at her. The product was the most recently purchased item in Yamato's stock. He'd bought it from the same trader that they had visited on Hallard. He had stood where herself and Taichi had stood, spoken to the same woman they had - maybe he'd even contemplated buying the same spices that they had - and had left to face a danger that they had yet to truly discover. The concept was perturbing. So many things could have happened differently to prevent what they all were facing. If they hadn't run into those bandits on the way to Hallard; if they hadn't accepted that additional low class mission; if they'd decided to restock on schedule instead of risk another month with leftover supplies...

So many small decisions could have changed everything. They might have bumped into Yamato in the market or seen his ship in the port rather than the auctions. It was daunting to consider the frailty of the relationship between fate and coincidence, but Sora found herself doing so anyway. And, suddenly, she remembered her captain. Taichi, only a few feet away, was oblivious to how Yamato had slipped through his fingers. If he knew how easy it could have been to save him he would dwell on it endlessly and berate himself for trivial or unavoidable things. He would distance himself from the crew and become immersed in his guilt and regrets. He wouldn't function.

Deciding hurriedly, she picked up Yamato's jar without hesitation and hid it in a separate cupboard behind a package of folded sheets and clothes. She then placed the jar of orange spices in the food cupboard and fastened it down. It was for the sake of their new mission that she did so. It would be better if Taichi didn't know.

She returned to the front of the ship, disguising her newfound sympathy for her Captain, and placed a hand on his shoulder. It was tense and solid beneath her touch and she frowned to realise that his entire body was stiff with stress. Calmly she sat in the seat next to him and spoke in a low, comforting voice.

"We're going to find him. If the stories you've told us are anything to go by, you probably know that he can handle himself. I don't think he'd let anything happen to him."

Taichi sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"That's different. If he was in a fight he'd probably kick ass. But...I just don't want to find out that this guy didn't fight fair."

"Well, getting worked up like this isn't going to help. None of us like seeing you this way."

Taichi twisted his lips into an embarrassed grimace. He'd been so caught up in his troubles that he hadn't realised the effect that his attitude might be having on his crew. He'd always been a headstrong character. When there was something that needed to be done he always put his whole heart into it and took it very seriously. It was just part of his personality and it had been that attribute specifically that had helped him through academy training. He'd always hated studying but his determination to succeed had driven him through sleepless nights surrounded by books to pass the entrance exams and long hours of physical training exercises. This situation was different, however and he found it difficult to take his usual pragmatic approach to the mission. The sacrifice at stake was too substantial to avoid thinking about and he found a strange, nagging pessimism that he had never experienced before. If he tried to relax himself he would be bombarded with images of Yamato - of what he once was and what he may have become - and he would be thrown back into his manic state. He appreciated Sora's words of comfort, but they didn't help. He hid his shame with a shy nod of his head and the two fell into silence for the rest of the journey.

The trading station that Myotis pulled into, Exon, was a lot smaller than Hallard. It's modern design was cold and metallic, looking much like a floating sugar cube in a cup of black coffee when they approached it. When they were granted permission to board its corner was folded apart to reveal rows of small landing pads. The one available for them flashed green and GABU was landed delicately upon it with minor difficulty on Taichi's part. Sora had even braced herself in preparation for a collision.

"Koushiro, can you transfer access to Miyotis's trade record to Gabu's computer?"

Taichi spoke into his Digivice.

"I'm on it."

A second later a page of data opened on GABU's screen and Taichi scrolled down to the most recent transactions.

"Okay, he's contributing to another auction. Let's take a look at his stock."

Still dressed in their civilian disguises they made their way to the auction. There was a small market place that followed their route, but it wasn't as lively and colourful as Hallard's had been. Each trader was given a square cubical for them to set up their trade and uniformed workers patrolled the rows to keep everything in its place. The environment seemed so clinical and artificial that neither Taichi or Sora found inspiration to purchase anything, so their walk was free from distraction or delay. They followed the illuminated markings on the floor and soon found themselves in an open space filled with rows of numbered items for them to browse before the auction started. They barely need to make their way through two rows before Taichi stopped and immediately identified Myotis's contribution.

"This is Myotis's lot. I can tell."

Sora followed the direction he'd pointed at and recoiled at the sight of it.

"Those are human life suits."

She mumbled and approached the suits hanging from metal racks. It was eerie to see them off of a human. Each suit was specifically designed to fit their owner and unworn they looked like deflated bodies. Most of them even had personal additions to them - badges, scuffs from usage, specialised technology installed - that would reduce their price. They would probably be bought for scrap and taken apart. Besides, all of them seemed to be damaged and useless. Every single one of them had a jagged tear from the top of the neck to the shoulder.

"I bet one of them is Yamato's."

"We don't know that yet. Do you see any you recognise?"

Taichi warily combed through the rack, reluctant to touch any of the suits when he moved them out of the way. He shook his head with a huff of frustration.

"I don't know. Number fourteen fits close to his measurements, but I'm not sure."

Looking carefully at the item in hand he tugged at the tear in the neck as he ran his eyes over it. The matte black fabric felt foreign to touch. The last time he'd seen Yamato he'd been wearing a dark green suit with a high neck, but it was smart to assume that he'd probably outgrown it sometime over the past few years. He'd been eighteen then, with another growth spurt yet to go. But, even so, Taichi could recognise Yamato's figure in this suit. The body was narrow and long, much Yamato had been in the past, only with slightly longer legs than Taichi remembered him having. He could imagine his lean, muscled limbs encased in the thin cloth far too vividly.

"We should talk to the auctioneer about them."

Sora said to him, craning her neck over the rows of items to try and find said person. Taichi let go of the suit and it melded back onto the rack with the rest of them, suddenly invisible. It was quite frightening to see how insignificant it seemed among the other suits. It was something unique among a collection of unique things and so that made it unremarkable. It would be bought for a meagre sum, taken apart ruthlessly and ravaged until only scraps of it remained, and then it would be lost forever without any care for who it had belonged to - for how precious it had been to someone.

He shook his head at Sora.

"Don't bother. We aren't going to get any information that we don't already know"

As he started walking away he lifted his arm and looked through the information on his Digivice, Sora walking at his side.

"So, what next? Are we waiting for the others?"

"We're going to check out Myotis's ship."

Sora, shocked at her Captain's statement, pulled on his shoulder to stop him walking any further.

"What?! Taichi, we're not authorised to do an invasive investigation yet!"

"Those life suits are cause enough for suspicion. He's probably got a ton of Earthian gear on his ship we can use for evidence. Once we get it we can arrest him."

"You're being too reckless. You could be discharged over this!"

"We can't keep following him around to these auctions. All the evidence we need is on his ship and the only way we'll find it is if we look for it ourselves. He's not going to tell us anything, so the only way we'll get any results is by taking a few risks."

"What about the others?"

"They should be arriving soon. We just have to sneak in, take a few pictures and get back to the ship to give the information to headquarters. Then we can go after him officially. We can end all of this stupid stalking and get the cuffs on him!"

He pierced her with a steely glare, his conviction absolute. He told her with his stare that his decision was final. If she refused to follow then he would go alone. He gave her the time to think it over, however. Sora growled and huffed, scratched her head and crossed her arms, all the while reaching the understanding that she really had no choice but to accompany him. She owed a lot to her Captain. He had saved her life more times than her pride would allow her to recall, and now was her opportunity to return the favour.

"I can't believe I keep allowing you to drag me into these things."

She moaned and looked away from the self-satisfied grin that swept across his face. Reaching into her knotted arms across her chest he took hold of her hand and pulled her along with him towards Myotis's ship. He knew where it was parked, but it was so recognisable amongst the others that he hadn't needed the information. Looking at it in a different light and from a different angle he decided that it didn't really look like an insect. The control compartment had a flat face, much like a snout, and the wings had an odd, jagged edge to one side of them as though they were webbed. After a better look, it resembled a bat more than anything else. A massive, four winged black bat, sweeping across the endless night of deep space.

The bay door was open and hired help from the station were loading and unloading stock, moving up and down the ramp in waves. It wasn't difficult for the two of them to sneak onboard amongst the crowd. Instead, it was unsettlingly easy. Taichi dragged Sora with him as he crouched behind a trolley carrying a particularly large load and both of them made it up the ramp and into the bay of the ship. Before another worker arrived to haul away the next load they quickly scoured the vast space for the exit. Sora was the one to spot the small door on the other side of the room and both rushed to it at the same time, flinching every time their boots slapped against the floor.

Once they were safe behind the closed door and safe from detection they were able to better analyse their surroundings. They found themselves at the start of a long passageway lined with black metal walls. A selection of doors were placed symmetrically along both walls with small windows at the top of each displaying enormous empty spaces. Creeping their way down their path Sora couldn't help but shiver. There was an awful, lifeless silence that made her feel vulnerable and alone even with Taichi standing next to her.

"This place is creepy. It's way too empty."

She whispered, peering through another window to see another dark, empty space. She couldn't believe that the ship was so baron. There were piles of stock being loaded into the ship, and yet there wasn't a single room with anything in it. Taichi was just as perplexed as her. What as the need for such large ship if Myotis hardly had enough stock to fill it? There must be something more.

"Where do you think he would store something he wanted to keep a secret?"

"Well, it probably won't be in one of the bigger storage areas. We should look for a smaller, more isolated one."

"Maybe Koushiro can take a look at the ship's plans for us."

Just as he lifted his Digivice to look at it the ship lurched and they found themselves falling against the wall. The ship wasn't silent anymore. The passageway was filled with a distant hum that was strong enough to rattle the floor their unsteady feet stood on.

"What was that?"

Sora warily asked. Before Taichi could reply a call came up on his Digivice from Mimi's. He answered in a soft voice.

"Mimi, what's going on?"

"Myotis is leaving!"

"Leaving?! But, Sora and I are on his ship!"

Sora's eyes widened in panic from hearing Taichi's side of the conversation. Mimi shrieked in disbelief, sounding just as alarmed as Sora was.

"What?! Taichi, you idiot! He's pulling out of the dock right now and it looks like he's in a damn hurry!"

"Shit! GABU is docked in 108! Take GABU and catch up to us."

"I don't know how to fly that thing!"

"Then take Koushiro with you. Jyou can watch over our ship."

"You are a terrible captain!"

"Just do it!"

As Taichi's voice increased in volume so did a quiet sound that neither of them had noticed before. Sora was the one to hear it first. It was the sound of metal colliding with metal. It was without rhythm unlike a machine

"Taichi, I don't think you should be talking so loud."

Sora whispered and pulled on his arm to get his attention. He too listened for the noise as it got louder, seeming to be travelling around the ship.

"What is that? There shouldn't be any other passengers."

He said and pulled his gun from its holster, reminding Sora to do the same. The ruckus continued to grow, sounding more chaotic as it drew closer to them. The walls and floor began to vibrate and the many doors rattled in their sockets as though they were cheering in a parade for what was to come. The sound descended the set of stairs at the far end of the passageway an reached their floor, seeming to already know exactly where to find the two trespassers. Their hearts pounded in unison at an overactive pace. Something was definitely coming toward them. They could feel the floor rumbling beneath their feet.

The furthest door from them peeled away and instead of a something it was a pack of _somethings_ that came bolting towards them. They were unlike any creatures either of them had ever encountered. An eclectic mass of monsters and oddities swarmed towards them, crashing into walls and each other as they scrambled towards the intruders. Some looked like anthropomorphised animals and others like the creations from a child's imagination. Some bounded along without limbs and some reached out with sharp claws but all of them were racing towards them with hostile intent. Taichi aimed his gun but was hesitant to fire without knowing what these things were. It wasn't until one of them leapt at him that he finally pulled the trigger.

His bullet shot across the passageway and punched a hole through its head. Instead of blood and bones the gaping hole in the creature revealed severed wires that sparked and a hollowness. The creature writhed and twitched before collapsing forward, showing that where the bullet had exited its metal skin had splintered and protruded from the wound like a flower.

"Robots?!"

Sora exclaimed in shock. The metal army continued their pursuit and Taichi fired round after round into the crowd, covering his eyes when the machines splintered and shrapnel ricocheted off of the walls. While his bravery was highly admired by Sora she decided to tackle the dilemma with the object of self preservation. She slammed her hand on the opening switch to the nearest door and hauled Taichi inside by his collar. In their civilian life suits they were completely unprepared for a fight. They had no spare ammunition, bar what they'd already loaded into their guns, and the basic material of their life suits would be cut like paper by metal claws and teeth. She closed the door and struggled to figure out how to lock it. As it turned out, locking it hadn't been necessary. The machines didn't seem to have the logical capacity to realise how the mechanism worked and tried to ram it open. She could only hope that they didn't fall on the control panel by accident.

Taichi made a frantic call on his Digivice while Sora searched the large space for an alternate escape route.

"Koushiro! Where are you?!"

"We're here. I'm hacking into the system right now to get the door open."

"Sora and I are stuck in one of the storage areas. He's got these creepy monster robot things and they have us cornered."

"Make your way back to the bay and we'll meet you there."

Just as soon s he'd hung up Sora ran up to him in a panic.

"There's no other way out. We're trapped."

"We're going to have to go back the way we came. Koushiro and Mimi will be pulling into the bay any minute."

Taichi was standing at the door, preparing to open it and charge into battle, when Sora stopped him.

"Wait a second."

Turning around he watched her dash across the room to retrieve a loading trolley from a row of them on the other side of the room.

"We can ram them with this."

She said. Looking back at the door Taichi saw the snarling faces on the other side and rethought his attack strategy.

"Good thinking."

He replied and side stepped to allow her to align the trolley with the door. She braced herself behind it and Taichi kept his back to the wall next to the door. He checked the chambers in his gun and counted four out of nine bullets left; not enough to win the fight but the perfect amount to leave alive. Then, he shared a look with Sora and she nodded in reply, tightening her hands around the trolley's handles in preparation. He held up three fingers to her and pulled them back into his hand one by one, counting the seconds until he would push the button to open the door again. When he'd finished the countdown he slammed his fist into the control panel at his side and the door peeled open. The first robot to leap at Sora was intercepted by Taichi's bullet in the side of its head and the rest were thrown back by the trolley that Sora threw at them. Four of them were trapped between it and the opposite wall of the passageway while the others retreated to avoid it. In that time Taichi and Sora were able to escape the storage room and sprint back towards the bay door. Taichi franticly pushed the button to open it but an ominous tone sounded and the panel flashed red.

"Shit!"

He pulled up onto his toes to get a better look through the window and saw that the bay door was still open and GABU was awkwardly setting to land.

"Come on. Come on. Hurry up!"

He chanted and repeatedly pressed the button while he watched the door slowly close. He could hear the growls and clangs of the robots finding their feet again and continuing their pursuit. He heard Sora's gun fire and turned around in time to see one of the beasts grab hold of her arm. She screamed in pain and shot it again with the gun pressed up against the robot's eye. When the thing flopped to the floor she pulled her arm protectively into her chest, smearing splotches of red across the yellow fabric of her life suit. Its claws had pierced her arm and its would have severed the limb from her entirely if she hadn't reacted as quickly as she did. The adrenalin rattled her body and she found that with every shaky exhale she released quiet, frightened squeaks. She tried to hide it from her Captain and pressed her throbbing arm closer into her defensive bubble.

As easily as Sora was able to read her Captain, he was capable of doing the same to her. He could see immediately that she was frightened but pretending not to be. She had always been ashamed of her weaknesses and during her time in the crew had been known to overcompensate for her limitations. Perhaps she thought she was a burden on the crew - that the emotions that made her human made her less of a soldier.

He place his arm across her shoulders and coaxed her behind him, all the while firing the last of his bullets at the robots drawing closer and closer. He took three steps back and tightly trapped Sora between his back and the door behind him. Determined to remain useful, Sora peered around Taichi and continued to fend off the swarm while she pressed the door's controls with the elbow of her wounded arm. After the last round had been fired from Taichi's gun and he prepared to be overwhelmed by a wave of teeth and claws he stumbled back onto Sora who had fallen through the now open door. A cry of pain was forced out of her when Taichi fell on top of her arm and a curtain of black momentarily covered her vision. Taichi gave himself no time to recover from the fall, despite the side of his elbow impacting with the floor and causing his entire arm to seize up an go numb. As soon as he felt solid ground beneath him he raced to stand up and charged at the door to close it. He just about sealed it in time to intercept a particularly fast robot and as soon as the door had completely shut he smashed the control panel with the butt of his gun. When the robots slammed into the door he took a step back and aimed his gun in preparation, forgetting that he had run out of bullets. The door rattled and strained against the force of the robots throwing themselves at it. They'd piled themselves on top of each other, scratching at the metal and clawing at the edges to try and peel it back. The sound of their strength was worrisome but the door seemed to hold for the time being. Taichi kept his eye on it, checking to see if it would budge while Sora called out to the others and shakily pulled herself off of the floor.

"Mimi! Koushiro!"

Two sets of feet sprinted towards them. Koushiro's face was nearly as red as his hair and his heavy panting was just as much of a distraction as the pounding and scratching against the door. Mimi stepped around him while he caught his breath, now dressed back in her dark blue military life suit.

"We contacted base to tell them about what's going on. They asked for evidence if we want back up on this. What happened to your arm, though?"

Mimi said and gently took a hold of Sora's wrist to look at her arm.

"Jyou's going to have to take a look at that."

Sora nodded with an embarrassed smile, as if to say 'it can't be helped'. Mimi took a small roll of gauze from her utility belt and handed it to Sora. Sora removed her now shredded jacket and began wrapping her arm while she spoke.

"We haven't found any evidence yet. Most of the ship is pretty much empty, so we think there must be a hidden storage area or something. Koushiro, have you got the ship's plans?"

The pace of Koushiro's breathing had now slowed down considerably and it was much easier for him to speak.

"I downloaded them onto my Digivice just in case. On the schematics it says that there is a smaller storage area beneath us right now on the lowest floor. It is the most remote of them and has two entrances. One is from an elevator in the control room and the other is a delivery chute in this room on the east wall."

Sora called out to Taichi to get his attention. He'd heard everything that had been said, but his attention was still directed towards the ruckus coming from the other side of the door.

"We'll take the delivery chute. There's no way we're going to get through those things."

He said and headed towards the west wall with the others. The delivery chute was little more than a gaping hole in the wall that entered into a long pipe that lead into pitch black. Taichi poked his head inside and squinted at the darkness, trying to define where it ended.

"How big's the drop?"

He asked and marvelled at the echo of his voice as it travelled down the chute.

"I wouldn't risk trying to jump it."

Koushiro replied, seeing that as a better response rather than reciting the exact measurements. Taichi looked around the room in search for some useful equipment and Mimi understood his intentions immediately. She dashed over to a nearby stack of crates that had been recently loaded onto the ship and unlashed the chord that bound them. She then secured it to the bindings of similar stack and handed to length of rope to Taichi for him to lower it into the entrance. It wasn't quite long enough to reach the bottom but at least he wouldn't break his legs when he landed. After returning his now empty gun to his holster Taichi lifted one leg into the chute and Koushiro helped him climb inside. He clenched the rope tightly and planted his feet against the wall of the chute.

"Wish me luck."

He mumbled and began to walk his way down into the darkness, anxious that he had no way of lighting his way and predetermining what waited for him at the bottom. The chute was narrow but not enough to make him feel claustrophobic. It was just the impenetrable darkness all round him that made him feel uneasy and the further down he climbed the darker it seemed to get, although with every step he recurrently decided that visibility had reached zero only to be surprised to find that it was possible to get even darker. His breathing echoed around him as well, feeling like something had attached itself to his back and was breathing in his ear.

The chute ended before the length of rope did. Taichi had been prepared for his foot to hit the wall but instead it fell through the air and his other foot slipped to join it dangling beneath him. He was left swinging from his hands and twisted the rope around his wrists to bear his weight better. Flashbacks of circuit train came rushing back to him and he awkwardly tried to mimic that rope climbing technique he'd been taught in the academy that he'd thought he'd forgotten. His legs were heavier than he realised when he pulled them up and tightened his thighs around the rope, feeling a small amount of relief in his hands now that his weight was better supported. He uncoiled the rope from around his wrists and continued on slowly until his foot brushed against the rope's end. From there he had no choice but to drop down to the floor. Thankfully it was only a short fall and he bent his knees to absorb the shock of his landing. The room he found was pitch black but he couldn't sense any movement. It was completely silent.

"Koushiro! Throw me your light!"

He called upwards.

"It's on its way!"

Came the distant reply. He heard the torch clatter as it fell through the chute and luckily land at his feet rather than on his head. Gauging from where he'd heard it land he felt around for it on the floor and picked it up. He turned it on to its brightest setting but it did little to illuminate the room. The walls were painted the same black as the rest of the ship was and they seemed to absorb the light he shined on them rather than reflect it. He pivoted on his left foot and directed the light around him in a circle. He couldn't decipher any definite shapes, but he knew for sure that nothing was alive and there were no more minions lurking in the shadows waiting to ambush him.

"It's all clear. Sora, come down first. I'll catch you at the bottom."

The chute amplified every sound that she made on the way down and her heard her definitely struggle to make her descent with one arm wounded. He shone the light upwards and waited as she emerged from the shadows. He readied his arms to catch her when she dropped down, but instead she proudly chose to handle the drop on her own and landed delicately o her feet next to him, falling with much more grace than he had done. The others came after her; first Koushiro, then Mimi. They stood in a close group together in the darkness, Mimi and Taichi shining their torches about the room in search of a light switch.

"Anyone see a light?"

Mimi was the one to fumble upon the switch in the dark and after waltzing across the room to turn it on the room became suddenly illuminated with a white light. All of them shied away from it at first while their eyes readjusted and looked up cautiously. The room was chaotic. Nothing had a place. An array of unrelated items and objects laid scattered around the room's borders, piled on top of one another carelessly. The piles were little more than a collection of random belongings. There were bags of tools and weapons, crumpled civilian clothing, remote wrist computers in all variations of newness, make up products, children's toys - if anyone had a need then it was guaranteed that they would find a solution in one of the many piles.

Without needing to be asked to by their Captain they all began to document what they could see. They turned on the cameras on their Digivices and held their arms in front of them for the device to record all that they could see. They pilfered through the piles looking for more solid evidence - signs of a fight or murder to strengthen their case - but couldn't find a drop of blood or strand of hair.

Sora approached a rack of life suits in the corner that was much like the one they'd seen at auction, but these suits were obviously too risky to sell. There were names printed on the fabric, suits for people with unique body shapes and even tiny life suits covered in bright colours with smiling characters on the fabric. Sora brushed her hand across one small, pink suit that was no bigger than the length of her arm.

"He's even got children's suits."

She distraughtly whispered to herself. The longer the investigation of Myotis seemed to go on the more emotionally invested Sora found herself. Those suits looked so small and helpless buried among the others, yet they still had the same tear from neck to shoulder as the rest of them.

"You guys got everything?"

Taichi asked and brought Sora back to the situation at hand. She collected herself and documented the suits on her Digivice, making sure that the children's suits were visible in the image.

"Yeah. We have enough, I think."

She replied and gathered in the centre of the room next to Taichi and Mimi. Koushiro was pacing the room in a daze and periodically glancing down at his Digivice in confusion..

"Koushiro? What are you doing?"

"There's no door."

Koushiro muttered and made another loop around the room, running his hands over the walls.

"There should be an elevator in here that leads to the control room and this storage area is only a third of the size as documented on the schematics."

The others looked to one another in agreement before following Koushiro's lead. They searched the walls for the seams of a door and knocked on the metal to find a hollow point. When Taichi lightly struck his fist against the metal wall it echoed around the room. He did the same again but leant in closer to hear the wall vibrate as the force of the impact rippled through it.

"It's this one."

He said before adjusting his search to look for some way to open it. There was no door but looking at the corners of the ceiling he saw that the entire wall was disconnected from the rest of the room. Koushiro stepped up next to him and within seconds he'd been able to find a control panel too minute for anyone to notice. The keys on the numbered pad were only just large enough to be pressed with the tip of a finger so it was no wonder why he'd had difficulty finding the damn thing. Taichi took a step back to give Koushiro space to work. The young red head had always been adroit at using technology. Despite his physical disadvantages his genius had been the deciding factor for his acceptance into the academy and his skills had proven to be detrimental to the crew since the beginning. These were the moments where his talents truly shined. It took less than a full minute for him to hack the control pad and override the door mechanism.

Just as Taichi had guessed, the whole wall was pulled into the ceiling and another much larger room was revealed. There were no lights in this room, only an eerie coloured glow from a set of machines and what light seeped in from the room next to it. All away along the room were rows of large, egg shaped containers hooked up to a central computer. They all slowly approached with a sense of trepidation. There was something about the atmosphere that made them all uneasy. They were surrounded by humming machinery with wires and tubes coiled around their feet that they had to step over carefully. The silence underneath the machines though was just like the one in the passageways above - dead and empty .

Taichi was the first to brave a closer examination. A small window was built into the front of the containers and looking into one he saw a series of straps and dangling wires within. There as something he recognised about them.

"These are stasis pods."

He stated in awe. He'd never seen one for himself but in the past he and his crew had rescued a few people in slavery and recovered hollow corpses that had all had familiar bruises around their necks and wrists. On witness accounts survivors had all talked about being restrained in these coffin-like machines and woken to find themselves in bindings and sold.

Suddenly Mimi let out a shrill scream and took a fearful step away from the pod she had been investigating.

"There's someone in this one!"

She cried out in distress and covered her mouth in shocked disbelief. Taichi, Sora and Koushiro all crowded around the pod to see for themselves and true to what Mimi had claimed there was a person inside. A young woman, looking to be only a little bit older than them, looked to be asleep or dead with a strap tightly fastened around her neck. Surrounding her appeared to be a blue, syrupy liquid that absorbed the light from behind them and emitted a tinted glow.

"Does anyone know her?"

Mimi questioned sadly, distraught that this woman had been lost and yet they were the first to find her. Instead of picking up on the more emotional aspect of the question Koushiro searched through his Digivice for any missing persons report that might fit her description. When he found none he moved onto the next pod and did the same for the next person inside, this time an older male.

Meanwhile Taichi and Sora sauntered slowly down the rows, observed by many lifeless faces.

"There are so many of them. And they're all human."

Sora uttered regretfully. Beside her Taichi poorly concealed his anger. His hands were tightly clenched into fists at his hips and his lips were pressed into a flat line over his gritted teeth.

"I guess humans must sell pretty highly."

He said spitefully.

"But, how did he get away with this for so long? Why are there no reports of these people missing? Someone should know about this!"

None of them had an answer for Sora's questions. They were all solemnly silent as they searched the room. Taichi documented all that he saw, trying to capture every face to find who they were and how they came to be in their position. He was terrified to think that this had all happened without anyone noticing. There were just less than a hundred pods and probably just as many families back on Earth worrying about their loved ones. There were nearly a hundred people that were currently lost to the world, and yet no one had known to look for them.

Taichi wasn't sure if he still wanted to find Yamato - not if this was the path he was lead down on his search. For the first time ever in his life he was scared that there existed an impossibility; that he might not be able to save all of these people. He knew nothing about stasis technology, hundreds of hostile machines stood on guard a floor above them waiting to attack and as far as coming up with an escape plan there was none that he could think of that included transporting nearly a hundred unconscious people safely off of the ship. GABU was their only vehicle and it would be dangerous enough to try and fit the four members of his crew into it, let alone any victims they could rescue. Himself and the others all drew closer to the conclusion that they would have to leave the ship without saving these people.

There were too many pods for the team to search through the entire collection. They focused on the task of capturing whatever important details they could and consoled themselves with the idea that after submitting their findings to their superiors they could return with reinforcements.

"We should go."

Koushiro gravely spoke. Mimi and Sora headed his advice and reluctantly turned away from the horrific scene, but Taichi couldn't bear to pull himself away from the helpless faces that accusingly seemed to stare out at him. Deciding that he would come around when he needed to, Mimi reached up to the rope to steady it and prepared herself to the climb, but before she could pull herself up Sora rested a hand on her arm and pulled it back.

"Hold on. Do you hear that?"

She said quietly and looked up into the darkness as though it were about to reveal something to her. Mimi stifled her breathing, making the room as quiet as she could, and finally managed to hear what Sora was hearing. From above them, echoing down the chute, was the sound of metal hitting metal in the rhythm of hundreds of footsteps.

"Is that those things you were talking about?"

"Probably."

"I thought you meant that there were, like, three or four! How many of them are there?"

"I don't know. We didn't really get a chance to count them all."

"Do you think we're safe in here?"

"I don't think they're smart enough to figure out where we are. They didn't even know how to open a door."

"Okay, so we're trapped, for now."

Mimi tutted in aggravation and let the rope swing from her hand.

"Well, we could still use the elevator to the control room."

She suggested in a questioning tone, but Sora shook her head.

"And then what? We'd still have to get back to the bay to get to GABU. Plus, we'd probably run straight into Myotis and I don't think we're prepared for that."

A silence fell between them while they both pondered an escape plan. Koushiro was the only one to notice the stillness of their Captain that stood still at the far end of the room. Taichi was staring up into the face a sleeping girl no older than sixteen with a torn expression. He seemed lost to the world, as though he was in deep conversation with the sleeping girl. Even when Koushiro began to slowly approach him he gave no indication that he noticed his presence.

"Taichi?"

Koushiro beckoned to him. Taichi blinked rapidly, waking from his daze, and turned to look at hm. Koushiro's worries were written on his face and Taichi's strained reply did little to dispel them.

"I'm fine."

Taichi lied curtly. Instead of offering useless words of comfort Koushiro joined him, examining to frozen innocence of one of Myotis's youngest victims.

"Do you know her?"

He asked. Taichi shook his head sadly.

"No."

He said and rubbed his itching eyes with the heel of his hand. In the other room, Mimi and Sora's conversation had started up again and their arguing words caught the attention of the two men. Half constructed ideas were shared and dismissed in rounds until both were growling and sighing in despair for the lack of a conclusion.

"We have to get back to the ship."

Koushiro said and Taichi silently agreed with him, albeit reluctantly. After he made his silent promise to the young girl he turned away and followed Koushiro back to the rest of his crew. The guilt and frustration weighed heavily on him and he dragged his feet with a sober expression that none of his crew were comfortable seeing. The two of them made a slow walk back down the rows of pods in silent grief as though they were marching in a funeral procession. While Koushiro walked with his head down, no longer wanting to look at the helpless souls that watched him, Taichi stood with his head held high and stared into the closed eyes of every one of them, making his declaration that he would indefinitely return and save them and all others like them that they had yet to find.

"What's the plan, then?"

He called out to Mimi and Sora as he made his way towards them. They shared an unsatisfied shrug and Sora replied.

"We're going to have to make a run for the ship. There's no other option."

"Alright. I'll go up first and lead them away so you guys can-"

Suddenly he paused and halted his foot before he could make the next step. Just as had he passed the central computer a flash of gold glinted on the edge of his vision like a distant star. He felt his throat clench shut and trap the air in his lungs as dread washed over him. For most of his life he'd had a golden glimmer in the corner of his eye; something that shined and brightened his sight. For a long time it had been missing and the world had seemed that little bit colder and greyer. Yet, in a dark hideaway, buried beneath an empty ship, he'd found it once again.

Before he could draw his gaze to the face that looked down on him a whisper of a name fell from his lips.

"Yamato."

* * *

**I've been desperate to get this chapter submitted for _weeks! _For some reason I really struggled with some bits, but now it's finally done, and I'm so glad!**

**Thank you everyone that's reviewed and given me feedback. I know this story is a bit tricky to read, but I'm so glad you like it and I hope you enjoy the new chapter :D**

**This story just seems to be increasing in length every time I come back to it. This chapter was half the length it is now when I first wrote it, but the longer it took to get it just right the more I felt I needed to add to it. So, if you guys spot any serious mistakes I'd be really grateful if you could point them out to me.**

**Anyway, it might be a while until my next update since my period of free time is drawing to a close (¬_¬), but I'll try not to leave you waiting for too long.**

**All reviews are appreciated! Thank you for your support! :)**

**Bed. Of. Nails. And. Sandpaper**

**x**


End file.
